Ratings vs Monaco

[Frozen_Waffles]

Alli top class, Toby brilliant, Walker good, the rest meh. I actually thought Kane did quite well today.

Lamela and Vertonghen pants, Vertonghen especially, I have never been convinced by him 100%, he looks nice on the ball and when we are not under pressure or he has little to do it is not a problem, but when a striker runs at him he looks lost. Mane destroyed him and he was at fault today for 1 or perhaps 2 of the goals. He is not that good in the air as well.

I may be a bit knee jerky but I would be considering Wimmer as an option to bring in, sooner rather than later.

Pissed off with Lamela a little as well, I am suprised he was not subbed for Dembele, I would have left Son on.

We are lacking pace up top! Still enjoyed the game, I thought Monaco were very well disciplined and on another day we would have walked it.

Also a little worried about us chasing games, in that second half we did not create enough

 

[whitelanefever]

My thoughts on the game seem to differ to most people, so apologies if I'm talking BS.

Lloris- Not really at fault for any of the goals

Walker- People saying he was our best player- I don't see what he did to deserve that. He didn't do much.

Alderweireld- Good header, don't think he was at fault for any of the goals.

Vertonghen- I said to my mate next to me that it wasn't only Lamela's fault for Silva's goal. I initially thought it was Toby who had allowed Bernardo Silva to run at us and finish on his left foot, turns out it was JV. Looks like he was also at fault for the 2nd goal. Not good.

Davies- Didn't do enough going forward.

Dier- Pretty average, hasn't reached the heights of last season.

Alli- Again, I didn't think he was great but others seem to think he had a good game. Spends too much time trying to nutmeg people. Looked absolutely knackered at the end to be fair.

Son- Should've scored- I actually thought he was at least trying to do something in the 1st half, and shouldn't have come off.

Eriksen- Like his pre-Stoke form.

Lamela- Largely at fault for the first goal and it wasn't a good performance from him overall.

Kane- Was more involved than in previous games, but his finishing was truly abysmal. Really poor from him, and I think Janssen should start on Sunday.

Subs:

Dembele- Was quite good when he came on, missed seeing his ability on the ball.

Janssen- Again, I thought he showed good strength/touches when he came on, but others seem to think he was poor. Although, after watching his ball for Sissoko again, I can see where the frustration came from.

Sissoko- Meh. Maybe should've come on earlier.

I agree.. bar Sissoko.. I thought he done well however again the time he came on we were just all the time hitting hopeful passes... I wasn't overally impressed with Walker either (thought he was a bit of a dumbass) it's not that hard to control a ball & get your head up.. the second half we had plenty of opportunities to pick someone coming in off the left ( Ali most notably) & what dose Kyle do head down & just hit it into the mixer.. fine might come to something but it's not the right choice of cross.. It's the difference of been a top fullback & just someone who is a great athlete & the way we play needs that top quality in those wide areas is a must... trouble is good fullbacks are very few & far between at the moment & the ones that are good cost a fortune

 

[fortworthspur]

Lloris - 6 thought he might have been bigger on their second but it was a bullet.

Davies - 6.5 doesnt overlap as well as Rose, but did ok

Verts - 6 not at his best

Toby - 7.5 gave us a chance and some belief with his goal

Walker - 7 always puts a shift in

Son - 5.5 should've scored TBH and little after that

Dier - 5 was awful in the first half

Alli - 7 was pretty poor when playing with Dier and fantastic in the second half

Lamela - 6.5 ran his socks off but little to show

Erickson - 5.5 poor

Kane - 6.5 was on an island much of the time - didnt think he was as bad as others do



Alli/Dier didnt work at all as a DM pairing. We really werent that bad, but Monaco were definitely better, took their two chances well and held on from there. Hopefully the team will learn from this because if they fuck around in the CL they will be punished again.

 

[ultimateloner]

Just came back the game and saw it from a high spot so focus was on the players off-the-ball movement.

Overall we were unlucky to lose this game. Monaco scored from the only 2 chances they had; they sat very deep and broke efficiently. They were disciplined in defence and studied us; someone was always tracking Ali's run when Toby gets on the ball around the half way line.

In attack we lacked variety. In the first half all 3 AMs: Lamela on the right, Eriksen in the middle and Son on the left; all of them wanted to get on the ball and none were making runs. Lamela in particular wasn't hugging the touch line enough; he was too central leaving Walker the only option on the right so we rarely had the overload situation.

We failed to move the ball around fast enough side-to-side. Kane was the only one in the first half who tried to received the ball on the run by getting into the channels.

2nd half we were much better and were unlucky to not score. Dembele was strong on the ball and crucially allowed Ali to play higher up the pitch where he's qualities showed. Ali was great on the ball; he is unpredictable and he knew he could beat the fullback. Problem was he over-played a few times. Arrogance is a double-edged sword i guess. Sissoko when he came on stretched the opposition more; should probably have come on sooner.

Individuals:

Lloris; couldn't have saved either goals; second near post one was close and driven upwards, so don't blame him. Distribution could be better though. 5

Walker; decent game and provided the width we need so much. His aggression and determination to beat a player by raw pace was much needed; i think it was his cross that led to Kane's best chance about 10 yards out. 7

Toby: class personified. Only defender in the team capable of consistently hitting accurate long balls. set piece threat. 7

Vert: I'm not sure if it was him or Davies who got beaten for the 1st goal. Aside from that he didn't do much. 5

Davies: he tried but lack of ability to drive down the left really hurts us. Against a team that sits back he failed to make enough overlapping runs to matter. we missed Rose. 5.

Dier: largely invisible 1st half. 5

Eriksen: Failed to influence proceedings. Showed good control in tight spaces and good ideas but didn't deliver. 5

Lamela: Pretty much same as above. 5

Ali: Good attacking qualities but over played. On a better day something could have happened. 6

Kane: Did everything he could as a center striker to create chances; won headers, ran the channels. Finishing eluded him. Not his day. 7.

Janssen: Showed he could play with his back to goal but nothing else. 5

Dembele: We controlled the 2nd half largely due to him so he did his job. 7

Son: Too similar to the other 2 AMs, didn't do much. 5

Sissoko: 1 good powerful run down the right to beat 2 defenders but i dont think his cross led to a shot. Gives us drive down the right; should probably have played sooner. 6

 

[Bus-Conductor]

In Game Brain Drain

The line up was pretty much as I'd expected Poch to go for, except with Dier for Wanyama, which I think was the first slight tactical mistake, Alli isn't great in a CM2 but at least Wanyama's dynamic aggression might have balanced off Alli's CM2 compromises and allowed him more license to bomb on and mitigated some of Alli's CM2 deficiencies, but the Alli/Dier pairing didn't quite offer this same balance. This is now the fifth game running (longer if we stretch back to the end of last season) that Dier's been pretty poor. I said at the start of the season I feared he may get found out a little this season, not because he's a terrible footballer, I think he's going to make one of the best CB's in the EPL one day hopefully, but I think last year our CM's (and this goes for most pairings) were flattered by the early proficiency of our front four defending (not to mention the improved CB and defensive improvements), when this started to drop off toward the end of last year and the beginning of this I think it exposed the CM's, in the same way it did the previous two years when we had the likes of Capoue/Mason/Bentaleb/Dembele, we've seen this at stages in three or four games now, again tonight there were times when it seemed like whenever we were pressed and harassed into giving the ball away the opposition looked like they could make hay. Monaco, like Liverpool and Everton, had done some homework, but like them, didn't take full advantage, but it's a horrible feeling of vulnerability that is stemming, IMO, from the drop off in our own pressing game and cohesion off the ball, and I think part of this is Pochettino not getting the team selection and balance of skills in the various zones right, part is just a failure to get those that do play doing it.

The goal was just a collective clusterfuck, Lamela carelessly gives the ball away, Davies should then read the impending danger and take Silva out if he can't get the ball, then (and I'm taking for granted that he has been prepared properly by the coaching staff about Monaco's players etc) Vertonghen must show Silva outside onto his weaker foot, it was reminiscent of the Mahrez goal at Leicester last year.

I'm not really sure what Walker's doing on the second goal, he leaves Eriksen 2v1, allowing them an easy opportunity to get a cross in, which then bounces fortuitously for their guy.

I've praised Poch a couple of times this season for his in game management, but tonight was back to the bad old days of counter intuitive in game changes that made things worse not better, particularly the Janssen for Lamela switch. It was straight out of 1980's "when in doubt throw on an extra striker on" playbook. Just throwing an extra striker on, does not automatically mean "more attacking" especially when you now have two strikers who need chances created for them, and you take off one of the players most likely to create those chances for them.

I think Son, playing ALM is at the very least as likely to produce something as Alli is, he was the closest to scoring in that first half, was very unlucky to be hooked, and our forward balance is so much better with Son/Eriksen/Lamela than Eriksen/Alli/ Lamela. Alli gets himself on the ball in these central areas but instead of doing what Erisken would do and get his head up and often do the simple or even fail trying the right difficult option, he tries to do the fucking elaborate, the double nut meg with triple salko and I lost count of the situations in good positions he frittered away, despite getting an appreciative "oooh" from Jenas, it was poor stuff.

The Janssen/Lamela with Alli to left wing just fucked away the momentum we had been building, momentum which Lamela had bee a vibrant part of. Just fucking take Kane off. Or at worst, take Dier off and put Alli back with Dembele and take the risk that now was worth taking, that wasn't when you had Alli in the CM2 with Dier at the beginning of the game. Personally, as much as I didn't want us spending 30m on Sissoko, I would have rather seen him used earlier that the Janssen/Lamela debacle.

I haven't fallen out of love with Poch, but I'm starting to feel some of the same vibes I felt with AVB. Appreciate the good intentions very much, can defend much of his oeuvre, but the arse isn't always cashing cheques the mouth is writing, team selections are counter intuitive to the proclaimed philosophy (Wanyama/Dier when tempo and fluidity is your mantra?) and some of Poch's in game management is totally fucking perverse. Fidel had some beautiful beliefs, but some Bananas ones too.

Individual

Lloris - Not loads to do as Monaco didn't capitalise on some decent break situations.

Walker - Curious defending on second gaol. Pretty inept going forwards.

Alderweireld - OK. Great finish.

Vertonghen - Poor defending for first goal.

Davies - Poor defending on first goal. Nothing much going forward

Dier - Poor

Alli - Flattered to deceive mostly. Rest in order, lets get the CM pairing right (and Alli isn't one of them) and give Son a good couple of games at ALM.

Dembele - Did OK when he came on.

Lamela - Gave the ball away carelessly that started the sequence for the first gaol, but after that I thought he was probably our liveliest attacking player, saw as much ball in 70 minutes as Alli did in 93, made the most key passes too (4) Alli (0)

Eriksen - Not his best night, and failed with a couple of attempted incisive passes, but still tried them at least and still saw more ball and made more key passes (3) than Alli.

Son - Very unlucky to be hooked at half time, I thought he was doing OK.

Kane - He did work harder tonight, but was ultimately disappointing and back to shooting at every given opportunity. I think he could and possibly should have been swapped for Janssen and we should have kept the AM's in tact. I wouldn't mind seeing him rested (but on the bench) for Saturday.

Janssen - The work rate and willingness to show and hold are all there, he needs a game up top on his own, so Kane can get a rest and he can get some proper pitch time in the right role, with the right balance.

 

[sparx100]

Just got back from the game.
My thoughts:

Walker was MOTM. He was up and down the pitch and wanted to help stretch Monaco but overall we were just too lethargic.

Son should have stayed on and Lamela should have been pulled at half time.
Eriksen should have been pulled early doors also.

Kane is not doing what he did a couple of seasons ago. The press starts with him and he doesn't press. He seriously needs a rest and someone to show him some videos of the effort he put in previously.

All I does not work particularly well in the midfield 2. He came alive much more when he was moved forward.

Very spursy performance in that we dominated large periods of the he game but still fail to capitalise on chances.

Pretty hacked off as I think they were there for the taking even at 2-0 down but we cannot conversation chances.

The other thing that I really noticed is our off the ball movement in that there isn't any....no intelligence to move the ball incisivelyrics today and to move to give the player options on the ball. Noticed it in previous games but seeing it first hand was an eye opener..

 

[THFCSPURS19]

I haven't fallen out of love with Poch, but I'm starting to feel some of the same vibes I felt with AVB.

You fucking what?

 

[DCSPUR]

You fucking what?

had a similar reaction when i read that - really is quite something to have that thought

 

[southlondonyiddo]

Thought Dele was our better player of today. Toby always seems to have a good game and his immense for us. Kane looked laboured and Walker wasn't involved as much as he should of been. With his pace, he'd kill most defenders.

Nice to have Demebele back but looked a little off it. Glimpses of what he can do but just wasn't our day which is sad.

Overall, poor performance, especially for the occasion.

Regroup, go again this weekend on Sunday.

COYS

Blimey I thought Dele was just about our worst player tonight. Lost just about every single battle and thought he was 2nd best all night. Plus there were times when I thought he was running in quicksand!

 

[mpickard2087]

Just got back, so any detailed and reasoned analysis and evaluation can fuck off.

Basically it can be summed up as the following: train ride in and the entrance on to Wembley way and subsequent walk amongst a sea of white will go down as very memorable moments. Seats taken full of optimism... And then rapidly downhill from there.

Amongst the jubilation that 'Spurs are back!', Some of us urged caution after the weekend. Let's see what happens against a team that doesn't just spinelessly roll over and hand us the match. We found out, much the same as all the other matches this season - massive lack of urgency, massive lack of sharpness, massive lack of ideas, total lack of energy. Both in attack and defence, with and without the ball.

We should have gone 1-0 up, after that opening period we in no way deserved to win that football match. Where do you start individually... Kane nearly reached crisis level after tonight. Vertonghen has massively regressed with and without the ball. All of our attacking midfielders were way below par. As was Dier. As was Davies. Alli I'm not sure what got shown on tv judging by some of the comments, because everyone in my block thought he had a shocker. No tactical discipline first half and then trundled around in the second doing too much or pissing about trying to be flash, especially on the left wing. Dembele had a good 15-20 mins initially when he entered the game. Janssen led the line, held the ball up, brought others into play and created our best second half chance and surely has to get a start that isn't in some hotchpotch shoehorn selection.

Poch has to get a grip because all over the park in every facet we are down on last season. Our game is largely built on energy, desire and work rate, and we haven't got them at the moment.

Extremely tired ramblings over. Very disappointing night.

 

[beats1]

I feel like when we dont add fresh legs to a poch team our pressing isn't as good. I think we need to make a few changes every couple of games

Also more worrying that we dont have a CM who is actually good at passing the ball forward. Winks has to start against Gillingham because this is terrible at the moment

You can blame Lamela for the first goal but you should notice that Eriksen and Lamela are effectively coming deep a lot because we struggle to pass the ball forward, our CB's are arguably the best players at moving the ball forward.

Also our vision is poor, there was a moment when Lamela was free in the second half on goal on the RW and no one made the pass despite having two opportunities, we didnt switch play much

Anyway to ratings

Lloris - 6 - He didnt do much

Walker - 7.5 - ran up and down really well

Davies - 5 - Needed to do better and doesnt offer that left wing option like rose

Vertonghen - 4.5 - Poor and it was summed up by the moment when Alderweireld had to clear the ball from Vertonghen because he was faffing about

Alderwiereld - 8 - Lets be honest he dragged us back in to the game

Dier - 5.5 - covered well but passing poor

Alli - 6 - first half poor especially with the ball but better on the left wing

Lamela - 5 - poor for the goal but he did try stuff however loses points for the stupids corners

Son - 5.5 - should have scored

Eriksen - 5 - poor and had stupid corners

Kane - 5.5 - Was good until he got in to the box, should have passed two times but shot in to legs instead

Subs

Dembele - 7 - First 15 mins he was great and then faded

Janssen - 6.5 - He ran around and created our best chance

Sissoko - 6 - meh

6 = neutral

 

[whitelanefever]

You fucking what?

He always had those thoughts.. just waited for a chance to dig him out.. same with his obsession of digging Dier out (he has been off form this season but if u look at BC evaluation of wkend game vs Stoke he laid into Dier & totally ignored how poor Wanyama was) he just has a vendetta.. I don't particularly rate our fullbacks( or not that many others in modern day football to be honest).. however I try to give credit when it's due..

I agree with some things BC says at times however It is my opinion he doesn't see the simple things done off the ball to really judge a player

 

[Houdini]

I just got back...and WOW!....my seats were very high up and it felt like i was falling sometimes because it made me, and some other people, a bit dizzy... below us was a game of football and Spurs were meant to be playing.... but it was dreadful, and i didnt like the feeling of being so high up, oh yes, a bird shit on the man 2 rows in front of me, it was funny!

MOtM = The little tiny bloke that scored for Spurs, him.

 

[Gaz_Gammon]

Just got back from the game.
My thoughts:


The other thing that I really noticed is our off the ball movement in that there isn't any....no intelligence to move the ball incisivelyrics today and to move to give the player options on the ball. Noticed it in previous games but seeing it first hand was an eye opener..

The fuck?.......................

 

[Tottenham_God]

Dier and Poch's homoerotic relationship needs to be split for a few matches, get Wanyama in there with Dembele.

 

[littlemandefoe]

Blimey I thought Dele was just about our worst player tonight. Lost just about every single battle and thought he was 2nd best all night. Plus there were times when I thought he was running in quicksand!

thought he worked hard, seems a lot of others agree (as per the poll)

 

[Eric_s]

The two worst Spurs players on the field were Dier and Kane. Dier was suppose to cover the defence but his anticipation, mobility and tracking of the Monaco's attackers was poor, allowing them to break almost unopposed.
Kane was the spearhead but played like he was the only man on the field, attempting to shoot instead of creating opportunities for his teammates. Squaring the ball instead of picking up teammates making runs.
Both need to be drop for the next game.

 

[double0]

I thought overall we played well and deserved at least a point from the game. What I will say is we seemed vulnerable in the centre, not to the extent we saw against Liverpool but it was alarming. Dier's form has been questionable of late and when you have such a poor defender like Vertonghen who hardly returns a favour we're going to have problems.

Lloris 5 could do nothing

Walker 7 attacked well his game has improved

Vertonghen 4 poor imo...I worry most about him

Alderweireld 7 defensively sound and is so dangerous at set plays.

Davies 5 ok

Dier 4.5 did not protect enough the CB he needs to reset to basic.

Alli 7.5 not sure what the stats say but visually imo our most effective player has such intelligence and flexibility for one so young to be able to switch positions.

Lamela 6.5 In terms of work rate unquestionably, however he did lose the ball that resulted to a goal, then supplying the cross for Alderweireld...mixed bag Overall not enough going forward.

Eriksen 6.5 ok but can do bettter

Son 6 Like Kane when the opportunity was there to score he like Kane didnt kill it.

Kane 6.5 Worked well for the team had few chances and really should of been a bit more critical hard demands but we're going to Need Kane to be that killer.

Subs
All ok.


Overall unlucky we lost hopefully in defeat we've learned a lesson.

 

[tricky1]

My thoughts on the game seem to differ to most people, so apologies if I'm talking BS.

Lloris- Not really at fault for any of the goals

Walker- People saying he was our best player- I don't see what he did to deserve that. He didn't do much.

Alderweireld- Good header, don't think he was at fault for any of the goals.

Vertonghen- I said to my mate next to me that it wasn't only Lamela's fault for Silva's goal. I initially thought it was Toby who had allowed Bernardo Silva to run at us and finish on his left foot, turns out it was JV. Looks like he was also at fault for the 2nd goal. Not good.

Davies- Didn't do enough going forward.

Dier- Pretty average, hasn't reached the heights of last season.

Alli- Again, I didn't think he was great but others seem to think he had a good game. Spends too much time trying to nutmeg people. Looked absolutely knackered at the end to be fair.

Son- Should've scored- I actually thought he was at least trying to do something in the 1st half, and shouldn't have come off.

Eriksen- Like his pre-Stoke form.

Lamela- Largely at fault for the first goal and it wasn't a good performance from him overall.

Kane- Was more involved than in previous games, but his finishing was truly abysmal. Really poor from him, and I think Janssen should start on Sunday.

Subs:

Dembele- Was quite good when he came on, missed seeing his ability on the ball.

Janssen- Again, I thought he showed good strength/touches when he came on, but others seem to think he was poor. Although, after watching his ball for Sissoko again, I can see where the frustration came from.

Sissoko- Meh. Maybe should've come on earlier.

I think you and me were watching the same game,Agree totally with your comments.

 

[StockSpur]

Love how TA's goal has papered over the fact he was owned in the air defensively again last night..